MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 25. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 23. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7  ! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 119.Source : Here .

• Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

• RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Grimsvotn Volcano Info Situation Update No. 8  - Source :Here .

• U.S. Congressman Says The Obama Administration Materially Supporting Terrorists.(BigPeace).Last Friday, May 20th, U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert of the First District of Texas indicated the current Administration appears to be complicit in supporting the designated terrorist organization Hamas. Thus far, there has been nearly no media coverage on the Congressman’s comments, which, one would think, would have a significant impact because of the implications of such an accusation.The comments came during an interview on the nationally syndicated radio program, “The Sean Hannity Show,” and were in response to reports of the attendance of Mohammed Magid at President Obama’s speech on Thursday May 19th at the U.S. Department of State regarding Israeli and Palestinian issues in the Middle East.Congressman Gohmert, a former Chief Justice for the 12th Court of Appeals in Texas, said, “There were a number of the co-conspirators that asked that their names be stricken from the pleadings. The judge refused to strike ISNA and others because he says there’s a prima facie case against them…I’ve seen documentation – deposit slips, journals, ledgers and things. They have a tremendous amount of evidence that could have been used to prosecute ISNA.”In ruling on this matter, Federal Judge Solis of the Northern District of Texas stated “The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA, and NAIT with HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and Hamas.” A three-judge appellate panel unanimously ruled the same. Thus far, the Department of Justice is not seeking to prosecute ISNA, NAIT, or CAIR.In March of this year, Deputy National Security Advisor Dennis McDonough went to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling, Virginia where he was the keynote speaker. The Executive Director of ADAMS is Mohammed Majid. Besides thanking Majid for leading prayers during the Iftar Dinner at the White House, included in Mr. McDonough remarks were these: “Thank you (Majid) for being one of the leading voices for the values that make America so strong. Especially religious freedom and tolerance…Whether it’s here at ADAMS or as the President of the Islamic Society of North America you’ve spoken with passion and eloquence not only about your own Islamic faith, but for the need to build bridges, as you’ve demonstrated here.” It is apparent the Deputy National Security Advisor to the President is not aware that the MB doctrine states that a “bridge” between the Muslims and non-Muslims is a one-way bridge – the MB reaches out to U.S. government entities to subvert them. That’s their doctrine.In response to this incident, Congressman Gohmert stated, “We’ve got the President of (ISNA) the Justice Department documents alleged co-conspirator for funding Hamas in the White House leading the President in prayer…He (Mohammed Majid) is in the inner sanctum of the State Department, he’s in the White House, and his organization – I’ve seen documents that make pretty clear they are helping fund Hamas.”But the bombshell came when the Congressman helped the Hannity listening audience put the pieces together with regards to the comments by the President at the State Department and the fact that Mohammed Majid, ISNA’s President, sat in the front of the audience of that speech.Congressman Gohmert quoted the President in the speech with, “The recent announcement of an agreement between Fatah and Hamas raises profound legitimate questions for Israel,” and Gohmert responded with: ”It doesn’t. It raises profound questions and issues for this administration, because under our criminal law you can be indicted for providing support to Hamas. And in fact one of the convictions was over providing funds, goods, and services to Specially Designated Terrorist organizations, and that’s Hamas. So it’s not just an issue for Israel, it’s an issue for our United States, and particularly this President and his administration.”For those of you paying attention, at least one sitting U.S. Congressman understands the depth of the Muslim Brotherhood penetration inside our government, and the reality that government leaders who work with known Muslim Brotherhood leaders need to be held accountable – criminally.Hmmmmm......Can Congress impeach him now?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan -Suicide car bomber - 32 killed, 56 hurt .(TheAge).A Taliban suicide car bomb has struck Pakistani police a second time in as many days, killing 32 people as the militia vows there will be no reprieve in their quest to avenge the US killing of Osama bin Laden.The attack defied the government's authorisation of "all means" to wipe out militants, which nonetheless stopped short of unveiling specific new measures despite a string of humiliating Taliban attacks on security forces.As Pakistan grapples with the fallout from the American special forces raid that killed the al-Qaeda chief on May 2, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the United States had "expectations" of its troubled ally. Police deputy inspector-general Masood Khan Afridi said: "The bomber blew up the car at a checkpoint close to the police station."A pick-up vehicle crossed the district police office in the town of Hangu, police official Latif Khan said, before exploding at a barrier outside the city police station, creating a three-metre-long and 0.3m-deep crater."The buildings housing the police station, DPO office and nearby residence of the DPO were partially damaged but at least 15 shops, including a tea house and a restaurant, are completely razed," he said."The death toll has now risen to 32," Afridi told AFP.District Police Officer (DPO) Abdul Rashid Khan also confirmed the toll and said 56 people were wounded in the attack.Hmmmm.... They're early this week even before the friday prayers.Read the full story here.

• Obama regime 'violates basic European principles' US want to store passenger data for 15 years.(Guardian).Draft of Washington-EU deal leaked to the Guardian shows agreement 'violates basic European principles'.The personal data of millions of passengers who fly between the US and Europe, including credit card details, phone numbers and home addresses, may be stored by the US department of homeland security for 15 years, according to a draft agreement between Washington and Brussels leaked to the Guardian.The "restricted" draft, which emerged from negotiations between the US and EU, opens the way for passenger data provided to airlines on check-in to be analysed by US automated data-mining and profiling programmes in the name of fighting terrorism, crime and illegal migration. The Americans want to require airlines to supply passenger lists as near complete as possible 96 hours before takeoff, so names can be checked against terrorist and immigration watchlists.The agreement acknowledges that there will be occasions when people are delayed or prevented from flying because they are wrongly identified as a threat, and gives them the right to petition for judicial review in the US federal court. It also outlines procedures in the event of anticipated data losses or other unauthorised disclosure. The text includes provisions under which "sensitive personal data" – such as ethnic origin, political opinions, and details of health or sex life – can be used in exceptional circumstances where an individual's life could be imperilled.The 15-year retention period is likely to prove highly controversial as it is three times the five years allowed for in the EU's PNR (passenger name record) regime to cover flights into, out of and within Europe. A period of five and a half years has just been negotiated in a similar agreement with Australia. Germany and France raised concerns this week about the agreement and the unproven necessity for the measure.Britain has already announced its intention to opt in to the European PNR plan, in which the home secretary, Theresa May, played a key role, and is expected to join the US agreement this summer.The Home Office minister Damian Green has said: "The power of PNR lies in the fact that by using an automated system and interrogating it intelligently, we are able to sift data quickly and in such a way that it reveals patterns and makes links that would otherwise not be readily apparent."The text of the draft agreement does not explicitly mention profiling but instead talks of "processing and analysing PNR data".The US Senate passed a resolution last week saying it "simply could not accept" any watering down by European ministers of data-sharing, describing it as "an important part of our layered defences against terrorism". Senators said it was an important tool in the security agencies' "identifying possible threats before they arrive in our country".But the European parliament, which would have to approve it, has demanded proof that such a PNR agreement is necessary, and said it should in no circumstances be used for data-mining or profiling.The agreement will not only cover transatlantic flights, but appears to raise the prospect that airlines will have to provide PNR details to Washington for other international flights. It also allows passenger data to be passed to agencies in countries outside the US and Europe.Jan Philip Albrecht, a German green party member of the European parliament's civil liberties committee, said the agreement in its current form should be rejected. "The planned PNR agreement with the US violates fundamental constitutional principles of European states. Europeans should have the right to protection of their fundamental rights when cooperating with other countries like the US and Australia.""A blanket retention of personal data for five or even more years is a huge infringement of data protection principles. The mass collection and analysis of PNR data as planned in the new agreements cannot be justified in the view of recent court judgements."Especially the untransparent profiling practices in the US are in clear contradiction to the European parliament's demands. In this form, the parliament has to vote the proposals down."The data to be collected includes 19 separate items relating to each airline passenger, including their billing details, contact numbers, the names of those they are travelling with and how much baggage they have, as well their itinerary.Airlines are to be required to provide the details up to 96 hours in advance, compared with 72 hours now under the provisional arrangement.Hmmmm.....For a minute i thought it was the Chinese government making these demands.Dictatorship or Democracy?Read the full story here.Read the full proposal here.

• Way to Go Canada!On Israel, Harper stands alone at G8 summit.(GlobeandMail).It was meant to be, as Barack Obama described it in London with his British counterpart beside him, another unified mission to storm the beaches of Normandy in the name of peace and democracy.And the Western world’s leaders do plan to use the Deauville, France, G8 summit to present a united front on the conflicts and revolutions of the Middle East. But one of the rare sources of friction has turned out to be the renegade honest Middle East views of Stephen Harper.A unified statement on a negotiated path to a Palestinian state had been a key goal of the Deauville summit, in large part because such a statement might have pre-empted an attempt to pass a United Nations resolution that would declare a Palestinian state against Israel’s will. There was some sense that Canada is putting an obstacle in the way of this goal. “Mr. Harper clearly is the odd man out on this one, and it won’t do him any favours,” a British official involved with the G8 conference said.Indeed, the summit opened Wednesday after a day of meetings between Mr. Obama and Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in which the two leaders made a bold show of having brought together their positions on Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab revolutions.Mr. Cameron has generally been much tougher in his criticisms of Israel and more hawkish in his support of Arab revolutions than his U.S. counterpart, but Mr. Obama said they had “turned a corner” and built a common front. Mr. Cameron, standing beside the U.S. President, called his speech “bold” and “visionary.”Canada has not been included in such initiatives because of Mr. Harper’s positions.But others felt that Mr. Harper’s recalcitrance would be less of an obstacle: After all, he has taken positions that side unilaterally with Israel since his first G8 summit in St. Petersburg shortly after he became Prime Minister in 2006, when he shocked delegates by rejecting a resolution calling for restraint in Israel’s attack on Lebanon, instead drafting his own “Canadian resolution” supporting the Israeli cause.“Canada is clearly at one extreme end of a continuum on the Israel issue, but we are not an outlier,” said John Kirton, the director of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto. “It’s fair to say that they will be able to issue a united statement, perhaps without being specific on the 1967 language, that allows Mr. Obama to say he has made progress on this.”Hmmmm.....It honors PM Harper as a human being and as a statesman to do the right thing!I Salute you Mr Harper!Read the full story here.

• Obama Explained By Andy McCarthy.(BigPeace).The message for Israel is simple: Enjoy your Obamacare!The past week’s presidential aggression-and-retreat two-step — amid indignant protestations that there had ever been any aggression in the first place — perfectly fit Obama’s pattern, which is already shopworn less than three years into his term. To cite the classic case, who could forget the single-payer shuffle?“I have not said that I am a supporter of a single-payer system,” declaimed Mr. Obama in 2009, as reported by National Review’s Jim Geraghty. The president’s assertion was an insult to the public intelligence, no matter how credulously the Obamedia repeated it. Out here in YouTube world, it was readily demonstrated that Obama had long been a dogmatic adherent of socialized medicine — meaning a complete government takeover of the health sector, destroying the private insurance industry and rationing care as if it were a corporate asset to be doled out by bureaucrats rather than a matter of personal choice in a free market.“I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health-care program,” Obama said in 2003, before denying that he’d said any such thing a few years later. He was a state senator then, reelected in one of the country’s most left-wing districts and speaking comfortably in his element — activists for socialized medicine. Those who heard him speak his mind found his sentiments pedestrian, the sort of thing he said all the time. “A single-payer health-care plan, a universal health-care plan,” he’d elaborated, “that’s what I’d like to see.”It was no surprise to people who actually knew Obama, such as Dr. Quentin Young, an Obama supporter from their Hyde Park neighborhood and the head of a socialized medicine lobby, Physicians for a National Health Program. Dr. Young argued that the dastardly private insurers were swimming in “profits that are breathtaking and obscene.” As Dr. Young recalled, Obama’s comments were “his categorical response,” something the state senator often repeated among constituents.Obama is an Alinskyite, though, a practical radical. Ineffective radicals are so blinded by ideology, so intoxicated by their own sense of righteousness, that they refuse to gauge the public sensibilities. Alinskyites are no less committed to their ideology; indeed, only a person who has completely bought into his ideology can maintain the patient discipline necessary to implement his utopia incrementally. That discipline is what makes the Alinskyite effective. Such an operator understands that you must always check the public pulse: Figure out how far you can push people, but never push so far that you lose political viability. Without power, radicalism is a dead end. The race is not to the swift but to the electable.That is the formula for understanding Obama on Israel. In the hard-core Left from which the president hails, Israel is no less reviled than the health-insurance companies. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proudly boasted in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, “America has no better friend than Israel.” That would be reason enough for those consumed by a blame-America-first mentality to loathe Israel. Palestinian Muslims live on global largesse and complain that it’s not enough, epitomize the culture of victimhood, and lionize terrorist “martyrs” who are no more savage (though a good bit more competent) than the iconic Bill Ayers and his Weather Underground. In short, the Palestinians check all the Left’s boxes. Even if Obama’s circle of Chicago friends did not include the rabidly anti-Israel Ayers and former PLO mouthpiece Rashid Khalidi, there would be little mystery about who is assigned the hero’s role and who is the villain in the president’s estimate of this long-running drama.But Obama could not say such a thing and remain politically viable. He knows that. Anyone who watched the rousing bipartisan ovation that washed over his bête noire, Netanyahu, in Congress on Tuesday would know that. This is an ardently pro-Israel country, and Obama’s Palestinian sympathies are no more representative of where Americans stand than is the longing for single-payer health care. Just like leading from the rear, governing from the fringe is a skill. It is necessary to dissemble.Obama’s error was to wager that it would be a shift to which the public would be open, or at least indifferent. He has made the same sort of mistake before, confounding the unpopularity of the war in Iraq with what he hopefully took to be the unpopularity of Bush counterterrorism in general — a miscalculation that has led him into embarrassing reversals on commitments to close Gitmo, end military commissions, and return counterterrorism to the law-enforcement model.This time, the blowback was immediate and instantly complemented by a dressing down from Netanyahu, a stunningly deft combination of eloquence, passion, and steely defiance cloaked in diplomatic respect. In what seemed like the blink of an eye between Thursday’s State Department speech and Sunday’s AIPAC speech, Obama went from asserting, “We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” to risibly claiming that he’d said Israel and Palestine “will negotiate a border that is different from the one that existed on June 4, 1967.” He went from trying to dictate the course of future events to laughably insisting that all he’d meant was that Israelis and Palestinians would have to negotiate settlement terms on their own.No one should be fooled, and no one was. Obama beat a breakneck retreat precisely because both his fans and his detractors realized he had tried to do something bold, his pretense to the contrary notwithstanding.Of course, neither of these scenarios is acceptable to the Obama Left, so we’ll continue to see bobbing and weaving about 1967 borders and land swaps and preexisting conditions and end-of-life counseling and similar head-spinning esoterica. Always remember that these are just chess moves. Obama eyes the whole board, and he makes the occasional blunder, but he never kicks over the table: He keeps his eyes on ultimate goal. To beat him, it is necessary to know that — and make sure America knows it. The next time around, there’d be no reelection to worry about.Hmmmm......As i said more than once"Israel has nothing to fear ,but Obama"!Read the full story here.

• Royal Society What Royal Society?Obama snubs British scientists by refusing to receive Royal Society medal.(Telegraph).Barack Obama has snubbed Britain’s most eminent scientists by refusing to attend a Royal Society banquet in his honour at which he was to be awarded with a prestigious medal. The US President rejected the invitation from the world-leading group of scientists and instead chose to visit a south London state school.Sources close to the state visit said members of the Royal Society were “deeply offended” by the snub and had accused Mr Obama of being obsessed with his “street cred”.The US President was offered the chance to receive the King Charles II medal, which is awarded in “exceptional circumstances” to heads of state who have “made an outstanding contribution to furthering scientific research in their country”.The last person to receive the medal was Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, in 2010.The honour was to be conferred on the US President at a dinner where he would be introduced to “some of Britain’s brightest and best young scientists” as well as some of the society’s most prestigious fellows.A British government source close to the Obama visit said: “The Royal Society was really keen to do something with Obama and they expected him to be very honoured by the medal.“Instead they received a very short response from his people saying that it would be better for him to visit a state school.“The inference they took from that was that he was more interested in cultivating his street cred than in building links with British scientists.”Bill Hartnett, the Royal Soctiety’s communications chief, confirmed that the offer had been rejected but insisted that no offence had been taken.He said: “There were some early discussions about whether the visit was an opportunity for him to come to the society and meet some of the UK’s brightest and best young scientists as well as some of our fellows.“We also discussed giving him the King Charles II Medal which is presented to heads of state.Had Mr Obama accepted the invitation, he would have been greeted by Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, who won a Nobel prize in 2001 for advances in genetics and cell biology.Instead he met pupils at the Globe Academy who had won an award for designing a lunchbox which folds out into a plate.Hmmmm....."A man is known by the compagny he keeps"?Read the full story here.

• Obama regime launches electric vehicle pilot trial.(Fedraw).Obama Administration Takes Major Step toward Advanced Vehicles with New Fleet Management Practices and Launch of First Federal Electric Vehicle Pilot.One hundred sixteen plug-in electric vehicles will be leased to 20 agencies, including the departments of Energy, the Navy, and the Treasury. The vehicles will be in five cities: Washington; Detroit; and Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, Calif. GSA will work with agencies to install charging infrastructure in federal buildings in the five pilot cities. The pilot will integrate electric vehicle technology and charging infrastructure into the federal fleet and federal buildings to the best ways to use the technology in the federal fleet. The 116 electric plug-in vehicles being deployed in the pilot are expected to annually save almost 29,000 gallons of gas, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 257 metric tons, and save taxpayers almost $116,000 in fuel costs. In September 2010, the GSA released a solicitation for bids on plug-in electric vehicles. Three contracts were awarded – the Chevrolet Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and THINK City. The electric pilot vehicles – 101 Volts, 10 Leafs, and five THINK vehicles – are being procured through the awarded contracts.Hmmmm.....Can't wait to see the Detroit ones perform in the mids of Winter.Read the full story here,more here.

• Fed Chairman's grand scheme, QE2, has failed miserably.(AmericanThinker).Facing the grim reality that the original "stimulus" was not bringing the U.S. economy back from the recession as hoped, on November 3, 2010 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke launched a bold (some would say foolhardy) plan to help stabilize the increasingly shaky financial sector. Quantitative Easement v.2, QE2, was proposed by fed "experts" as the only viable means to slow the precipitous drop in value of the dollar and subsequent loss of faith in the U.S. government's ability to cover its massive debts.In short, the Fed's plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities was an attempt to speed up the slow (perhaps nonexistent) economic recovery and make investors happy again.The truth? QE2 has created a massive new bubble in dollar-based financial assets, from stocks to gold. Meanwhile, it has had zero visible effect on the real economy.Take jobs. According to the U.S. Labor Department, since last August the number of full-time workers has gone up by just 700,000, from 111.8 million to 112.5 million.At a cost of $600 billion, that's $850,000 a job.The picture's even more meager. Over the same period, the number of part-time workers has gone down by 600,000. In other words, we've basically shifted 600,000 or 700,000 workers from part-time jobs to full-time jobs. Housing is double-dipping. Big time. According to the National Association of Realtors, the average price of an "existing" (i.e. used) home was $177,300 in August, just before QE2.Today? It's $163,700 - or 8% less.Economic growth has slowed. It was 2.6% last summer. It's a miserable 1.8% now.Meanwhile inflation has risen, from 1.2% before QE2 to 3.1% now.Hmmmm.....Obama's second term?Here comes QE3 - QE4!Read the full story here.

• Coptic Christian in US has Egyptian nationality withdrawn.(Almasryalyoum).The Administrative Judicial Court on Sunday ordered the withdrawal of Egyptian nationality from Morris Sadek, a Coptic Christian lawyer living in the United States, and banned him from entering the country.The action was taken against Sadek for a number of alleged crimes, including calls for war against Egypt.A lawyer leading the case against Sadek said he had insulted Islam, showed allegiance to Judaism, called for the killing of Arabs and requested the United States and Israel to interfere in Egypt’s domestic affairs.“I will not appeal the verdict,” Sadek said. “I will use it to show the world how the Islamists control the Egyptian judiciary.”Hmmmm.....The 'people' the Obama regime is giving 3,57 Billion Dollar in total!Read the full story here.

• Palestinian Fatah, Hamas met in Turkey, officials say.(TodaysZaman).Representatives from Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah met in Ankara last weekend to discuss ways to strengthen national dialogue, sources told Today's Zaman on Thursday.The meeting, organized by a Finnish nongovernmental organization, was backed by Turkey, officials said. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official addressed a reception held at the opening of Saturday's meeting but no Turkish official attended the talks.The meeting came after Fatah and Hamas proclaimed a landmark unity deal aimed at ending their bitter, four-year rift on May 4 in Cairo, Egypt. Turkey threw its support behind the reconciliation deal, with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu attending the signing ceremony in Cairo and calling on Israel and the international community to also support the deal.Juma said the meeting focused on ways to implement a reconciliation deal and strengthen dialogue. The two sides, he said, discussed how the reconciliation deal could further be developed. He also said a new unity government that Hamas and Fatah agreed to set up would probably be established over the next two weeks.Commenting on the Ankara meeting, Hamas lawmaker al-Asqar said he hoped the gathering would turn a new page in furthering reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.Hmmmm......Why in Turkey?If not for the Gaza flotilla.Read the full story here.

• “Has Erdogan Jr. Become an Gaza Flotilla Activist?” PM Erdogan’s Son Participates at IHH Event.(Memri).Turkish PM Erdogan’s son Necmettin Bilal Erdogan and his family participated in pro-Hamas, Islamist charity organization IHH’s “Kite Festival” organized to commemorate the anniversary of the raid on Mavi Marmara.IHH organized the event in Istanbul as part of a program to commemorate the shahids of the ill-fated raid of the Israeli commandos on Mavi Marmara on May 31 of last year.The kite festival was organized to be held in Istanbul and the shores of Gaza simultaneously. More than 1500 special kites with the pictures of the ‘shahids’, Palestinian flags, and of Mavi Marmara that were prepared for the event by IHH were flown by the participants. PM Erdogan’s son flew a kite which had the picture of Mavi Marmara and the script that read, “Mavi Marmara Continues on its Voyage”.The series of commemorative events will end on May 30 with a big march to Istanbul’s Taksim square, with the participation of many Islamist organizations under the leadership of IHH.Hmmmm.....If he's on one of the boats ,you can bet your life that 'Daddy' will have the Turkish fleet ready and waiting!Read the full story here.

• Turkey preparing warships for Gaza flotilla?Top commander meets Gül, Erdoğan after Turkey scraps Aegean drills.(TodaysZaman).Chief of General Staff Gen. Işık Koşaner had talks with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after a surprise decision to cancel two major military drills in the Aegean Sea.News reports said Erdoğan and Koşaner discussed the cancelation of the Denizkurdu (Sea Wolf) and Efes (Ephesus) maneuvers during their 40-minute meeting on Thursday, but there was no official confirmation. No statement was made after the meeting, a weekly routine.Koşaner met with President Gül late on Wednesday. No statement was made after the talks.The General Staff announced late on Tuesday in a brief statement on its website that the annual Efes (Ephesus) exercises, involving land, air and naval drills, and the Denizkurdu (Sea Wolf) maneuvers, held at sea every two years, have been canceled. The General Staff had organized a press tour for the maneuvers, scheduled to start on May 25.In remarks that appeared to suggest that the government had no role in the cancelation decision, Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said on Wednesday that the decision to scrap the drills was made by the General Staff.“According to the information I have, this is a result of internal deliberations among top commanders,” Gönül told reporters when asked whether he had information about the reason for the cancellation.Hmmmmm.....Hamas in Turkey,Gaza Flotilla ....Turkish warships to be send after the elections?Read the full story here.

• Islam and Gender equality?Lancashire mosques chair criticises 'impractical' equality call.(LancashireTelegraph)Official guidelines that women should have more influence in running mosques have been criticised by a Lancashire mosque leader.The Mosque and Imams Advisory Board, MINAB, wants to reform and regulate Islamic places of worship and has also asked for sermons to be held in English.Salim Mulla, the chair of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said the advice was ‘unhelpful, impractical and an interference’.But Anjum Anwar, Blackburn Cathedral’s dialogue development officer, said she has invited MINAB’s chairman to Blackburn to discuss the guidelines.She said it was important to begin a discussion on how mosques can be more inclusive of women.Coun Mulla said of more than 100 mosques LCM represents there was not a single woman on management committees — and that was ‘unlikely to change’.And he said calls to complete prayers in English would not be adhered to. MINAB was set up after the 7/7 attacks on London as a result of consultation between the government and Muslims.Its new guidelines were sent out last week. The Lancashire Council of Mosques is not a member of MINAB. Coun Mulla said: “The central mosque in Blackburn, at Cumberland Street, already has an English speaking imam, who explains the prayers in English before they get underway.“To translate the prayers would take too much time. "Islamically, the prayer is not valid if it's not done in Arabic.” Many of the mosques were engaging with women such as asking them to run madrassas for children, he said.Coun Mulla said: “We see this as interference in privately run and funded places of worship.”Mrs Anwar said: “Both men and women have a role to play in all religions. "It is important, not simply to sit back and accept the guidelines, but to meet and talk and find a way forward that is inclusive.”Hmmmm....welcome to A.d. 620?Read the full story here